College of Charleston
William & Mary
Women?s Tennis Falls Short in CAA Championship Match
4/19/2015 6:30:00 PM | Women's Tennis
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – No. 2-seeded College of Charleston women's tennis fell short of its bid for a CAA Championship with a 4-0 loss to No. 1 seed William & Mary on Sunday morning on the Tribe's home courts.
“Although we didn't win today, I was certainly very pleased with the improvement of our performance over how we played against them in February,” CofC Head Coach Angelo Anastopoulo said. “William & Mary was the better team and they looked like they have returned to the level of play that earned them a top-30 ranking earlier this year.”
The Tribe, currently ranked 56th in the latest ITA poll, have been nationally ranked since Jan. 20, rising as high as 28th in the Feb. 24poll. The conference title is program's 23rd, dating back to its first championship in 1986. W&M ascends the podium after a one-year hiatus in 2014.
Despite being swept, the Cougars gave a strong performance in both singles and doubles action. A pair of nationally-ranked teams took the court at No.1 doubles as CofC's No. 79 Jenny Falcone and Katherine Schofield faced No. 56 Leeza Nemchinov and Jeltje Loomans, of W&M. The Tribe tandem's 8-5 win over Falcne and Schofield clinched the doubles point and snapped the pair's eight-match win streak.
William & Mary (16-6, 4-0 CAA) reeled off three singles victories on courts 1, 2 and 4 to cement its victory. Neminchov demonstrated why she was named the CAA Player of the Year with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Charleston's top-seeded Samantha Maddox. Maddox was an all-conference second-team honoree and finished her final season as Cougar with eight of her 11 wins coming on court one.
Falcone was the only Cougar to win a set over the Tribe, defeating fifth-seeded Maria Groener 7-5 in the tiebreak. She was down 2-3 in the second set when Loomans clinched the match on court two for William & Mary.
The Cougars finished their 2015 season with a 14-13 overall record and a 6-2 mark in conference action. After a slow start against a demanding schedule early in the season, CofC racked up 10 straight wins before falling in the conference finals.
“I knew we had a talented team but if someone had told me in February that we would be competing for the CAA Championship, I would have been very skeptical based on our record and some of our performances then,” CAA Coach of the Year Anastopoulo said. “In the end the team played up to their potential and gave it their all and that's all a coach could ever hope for.”
Sunday's loss marks the end of their collegiate careers for three seniors, Grace Baker, Falcone and Maddox. The trio, who was the highest-rated incoming class in program history, gave the Cougars back-to-back Southern Conference Championships and then led them to the CAA Conference finals twice in the team's first two years in the league.
“Our team was in tears after our match but I knew they weren't tears for the loss,” Anastopoulo said. “They were tears because they would no longer be together on a regular basis. We would certainly have liked to bring home the CAA Championship but the saddest part is that we miss out on a couple more weeks of time together.”
Singles:
1. Leeza Nemchinov (W&M) def. Samantha Maddox (CofC) 6-1, 6-2
2. Jeltje Loomans (W&M) def. Brooke McAmis (CofC) 6-2, 7-5
3. Olivia Thaler (W&M) vs. Mara Argyriou (CofC) 6-0, 5-2, unf.
4. Melanie Roy (W&M) def. Katherine Schofield (CfC) 6-1, 6-2
5. Jenny Falcone (CofC) vs. Maria Groener (W&M) 7-6(5), 2-3, unf.
6. Cecily Wuenscher (W&M) vs. Grace Baker (CofC) 6-2, 4-3, unf.
Order of Finish: 4, 1, 2
Doubles:
1. Jeltjie Loomans/Leeza Neminchov (W&M) def. Jenny Falcone/Katherine Schofield (CofC) 8-5
2. Maria Groener/Olivia Thaler (W&M) vs. Samantha Maddox/Mara Argyriou (CofC) 6-6
3. Julia Casselbury/Melanie Roy (W&M) def. Sarah Jane Jones/Grace Baker (CofC) 8-3
Order of Finish: 3,1
Players Mentioned
